"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
~ 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
"if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall"
In other words, don't be prideful about your walk with God. Don't assume that just because everything is hunky-dory, it always will be. Don't look at the sins and temptations of others and think with disgust or judgement, "I could never do that. I'm better than that." In other words, if you think you're walking on the straight and narrow with the Lord, don't let your guard down. In fact, this is the time when you should really be on your guard the most, because Satan loves to get between a Christian and the Lord. Satan loves to tempt us and draw us away from God's heart.
"no temptation has seized you except what is common to man"
Okay, so you're tempted to sin. What's Paul telling us here? That we're all tempted to sin. Temptation is common to man - that is, all men experience temptation. Even Jesus was tempted (Hebrews 2:18), though He did not sin in reaction to temptation (Hebrews 4:15). Satan hates our relationship with God. He desires nothing more than to tear us away from the Lord any way he can, and sin is what separates us from God. So Satan tries to deceive us into sin, just as he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden. Does that mean that just because we're tempted that we have to sin? No.
"God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear"
God is faithful. That means He's reliable, trustworthy, true to His Word. We're told here that God won't let us be tempted beyond what we can stand against. That is, the choice to sin will always be that: a choice. Though God will perhaps allow us to be tempted, He will never allow so much temptation that we're incapable of resisting it. Thus we can't excuse our sin. "I engaged in impure acts with my girlfriend because she wore a skirt that was way too short" is not an excuse. Yes, perhaps the skirt and the girl were tempting, but God doesn't allow temptation beyond what we are able to resist. What the Bible is telling us here is that we need to stop shifting blame. If we sin, if we do evil, it's not God's fault, it's not our girlfriend's fault, it's not the dog's fault. It's our own fault, because God doesn't allow temptation to become so strong that we have no choice but to sin.
Okay, so God doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can withstand. But how can we withstand it?
"when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it"
God gives us a way out, a way to stand against temptation. Maybe He gives us the strength of will to pull away from the temptation ourselves. Maybe He provides us with an accountability partner. Maybe, just maybe, He provides a perfectly timed phone call from our mother just as we were getting ready to give in. I don't really know what God will do in any given situation to allow us a way out of sin, but I do trust the Word of God, and it says that He will provide a way out. Isn't that an awesome promise of God?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment